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The Brewers are finally coming back to earth (and might leave a crater in the process) and the Pirates have injury problems of their own (to wit, they currently have only one starting pitcher who is clearly above replacement level, and he himself doesn't exactly have a sterling health record).

The Cardinals have more depth than the other teams and I think they remain the easy favorite to take the division.

So I don't think #6 was meant very seriously, but I decided to check it out for plausibility. Frazier has played 8 innings at 2B in the majors, and 39 games there in the minors (almost all in 2009). Soto is having a good year, but his track record is pretty grim. He was a good prospect once upon a time, but I have the feeling that he'd hit something like 200/220/350 in the majors.

Schumaker really can play second base, although his hitting is terrible. Looking at the guys who have played some 2B in Louisville this year, it's a bunch of minor league filler, but Ruben Gotay might be the best bet. Maybe promote Bryan Anderson for OF depth and Schumaker to 2B? This is going to be a long summer.

OMG! As if Phillips getting hurt isn't bad enough, Bryan Price is hitting Cozart 2nd today! Will the nightmare never end?! I mean, the only silver lining to Phillips getting hurt is that he would no longer be sucking up outs in the 3rd and 4th spots in the lineup, and now, the greatest out-suck of them all gets moved to the 2nd spot.

Serious question... Is Ben Zobrist available? He's got a team option for next season, but, a 500k buyout. Would be a great fill-in for Phillips while he is out. Plus, this Reds team is so banged up, that even once Votto and Phillips come back, there should be plenty of at-bats to go around. Plus, Plus, he would be a real #2 hitter!

I would imagine that Zobrist is available, but you have to trade real talent for real major leaguers. I doubt that there's any way to get Zobrist without giving up Stephenson. Maybe that's worth it - Zobrist's option next year is very reasonable. But he's a lot more expensive (talent wise) than the other ideas we've been kicking around.

I was about to suggest trading for Stephen Drew, but wow, OPS+ of 15.

Hamilton was a butcher at SS. If the Reds are going to move an OF to 2B and look for a replacement OF, it should really be Schumaker.

The Cardinals are getting a LOT of credit here based on their perceived advantage in talent, but at some point in a season (say, the halfway mark) the results on the field should reflect it, right?

I went back in BBREF to track the recent hot streaks by the Pirates (since May 20) and Reds (since May 29), and within both of those time frames, the Bucs and Reds have pythag records WELL over .500. Since May 18, Pittsburgh has a .543 and Cincinnati has a .568.

St. Louis, on the other hand has a +3 run differential and a .508 Pythag since May 18. And the more I shorten that time frame, the worse that number gets.

What is it about the 2014 Cardinals that has folks thinking they can simply "turn it on" in the second half? Or conversely, why doesn't anyone believe in what the Pirates and Reds have done over the past 7-8 weeks, or what the Brewers have done all season?

The Pirates played an extremely easy schedule most of May. They're 12-25 against the Brewers, Cardinals and Reds, 36-19 against everyone else (which in June included such luminaries as the Phillies, Diamondbacks, Marlins, Padres, Cubs, and Cubs.)

What is it about the 2014 Cardinals that has folks thinking they can simply "turn it on" in the second half?

Belief that Matt Holliday and Allen Craig are still the players they were in the past. Belief that Oscar Taveras, Kolten Wong and Carlos Martinez are really the A prospects all the touts said they were.

Those beliefs may be dead wrong, because a half-season is a sizable sample of evidence to the contrary. But even so, those beliefs are not unreasonable.

How is Zobrist's D at SS? DRS (don't know if that's a good one to use) says just about average, give or take. How does a Stephenson-centric deal for Zobrist sound? He plays 2B until Philips gets back, and pushes Cozart to the bench for the rest of the year. (WAR seems to think that's about a wash this year, actually, though Zobrist has beaten Cozart by a lot in the past.) Or he can play 1B while Votto is out and shift over to 2B when he comes back. The Reds are playing Brayan Pena, their back-up catcher, at 1B right now. That has to end, and fast.

it's the first two that can cause a fair amount of noise because it drives the pitchers crazy. george loses strikes (or is perceived to be losing pitcher strike calls) regularly. and he can't throw. so pitchers can really start to b8tch about having kottaras behind the plate. if are a pitcher who is constantly working the black to stay in the league and george is dropping his mitt at the wrong time or shifting as he catches the pitch causing the ump to think the pitch is off the plate you get really irritated really fast.

one of the female bbtfer's confirmed what i had been told is that women find georgie very attractive. no idea if that is a factor.

Harveys: Interesting. So why wasn't he moved off catcher years ago? His bat has always seemed potent enough that there's a chance he could develop into a 120 OPS+ guy without the burden of trying to catch.

So why wasn't he moved off catcher years ago? His bat has always seemed potent enough that there's a chance he could develop into a 120 OPS+ guy without the burden of trying to catch.

Looks like a stretch to me. He never hit particularly well in the minors including a career 245 BA in AAA. If anything, he's hit for more power and maintained his walk rate better than we'd have expected. He didn't make the majors until 26 and was never given a full season. His career 99 OPS+ is heavily tilted towards RHP.

Increase his BA by 15-20 points and his ISO by 30 points and you've got Carlos Pena (career 118 OPS+) but that's a 60 point increase in OPS and there's no reason to think moving a guy off C (esp as late as 26+) can have that sort of effect ... and Pena's successful years were driven by ISOs in the 300+ range that I can't imagine Kottaras doing. More likely, Kottaras the 1B is Daric Barton without the defense.

That said, I agree it's a mystery. The pitch handling and throwing would be good reasons he's never been a starter, but 99 OPS+ LHB with limited defense sounds like a good choice for backup C to me.

Looks like a stretch to me. He never hit particularly well in the minors including a career 245 BA in AAA. If anything, he's hit for more power and maintained his walk rate better than we'd have expected. He didn't make the majors until 26 and was never given a full season. His career 99 OPS+ is heavily tilted towards RHP.

But how unusual is that?....quick look says that he's faced right handed batters 79% of the time... looking at 2013 right handed pitchers faced 79% of the batters. I understand that lefties face a higher percentage of lefties on average than other players, so him matching the league norm is indicative that he's faced fewer lefties than other lefty batters, but not fewer than the league.